It is known from DE-2838691 (UCB) to prepare acrylic polyesters by reacting hydroxy-functional polyesters with acrylic acid and by removing remaining acid(s) by an aqueous base neutralization step.
The process as described in DE-2838691 has the disadvantage that a complicated and time-consuming washing step, including different separation steps, is used to remove acidic catalyst and remaining acrylic acid. Moreover, said washing step results in chemical waste, and is thus environmentally unfriendly.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a process for the preparation of esters of (meth)acrylic acid in the presence of an acidic (trans)esterification catalyst which overcomes the above disadvantage, in particular, a process which avoids the necessity of a complicated washing step to remove free acid groups of the acidic catalyst.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a process for neutralizing an acidic (trans)esterification catalyst in a reaction mixture comprising an ester compound without the necessity for said washing step.